The Drugs-Violence Nexus Among Mexican-American Gang Members

Abstract

This study examines hypotheses and builds models to help clarify the causal connections between drugs and violence outcomes among Mexican-American male gang members. The study uses cross-sectional data of 160 male gang members sampled from 26 gangs in a Southwestern city. A life-history /intensive interview using closed and open-ended questions and a violence risk psychometric test (PFAV) also employed 10 scenario questions to elicit self-produced accounts of the participant's last fight. Gangmember participant's ages ranged from 14 to 25 years with a mean age of 18.5 years. The study concludes that drug use interacts with an individual gang member's risk for violence to affect violent behavior outcomes. Furthermore, an important situational variable explaining violent outcomes among respondents scoring high on the violence risk measure was whether the rival was using drugs that resulted in high intoxicatiion levels. The study concludes that drugs have a modulating and mediating influence on violence that is conditioned by situational and individual level variables among members of these adolescent street gangs.

Keywords:

• drugs-violence nexus
• gangs
• Mexican American
• violence risk